Erieau Trails & Rails

Last Sunday a dedication ceremony was held at Erieau to celebrate the building of a viewing stand on Erieau's newly revamped marsh trail. Many volunteers and organizations were involved in getting this established.
The platform allows one to look out over Rondeau Bay, providing a good vantage point.
There has always been a trail of sorts there, as this used to be the railroad right-of-way. And, it has always been a good migrant trap for birds!
We have always called it "The Railroad Tracks".

The Viewing Stand

The railroad was established there about 1892 by the Erie and Huron Railroad. The village of Erieau became a large railway terminus, mainly for the transporation of coal. As well, rail cars were shipped by ferries across to Ohio. Passenger service was also offered.
Even a shipbuilding and drydock company was there. The Erieau Shipbuilding and Drydock Company built vessels such as the Sombra ferry Daldean and a few years before that, the small ferry Lowell D for the Walpole Island Ferry which my grandfather operated for a while. The Lowell D is languishing at Erieau in the Hike Metals yard at present. Herb Goodison, who operated the company also sold motors and Shepherd power boats. We had one of those for a while.

Rail Remnants

Looking at old photos, one can see how busy Erieau once was with regards to the railroad. There were several rows of tracks on both sides of the slip.

Service waned by the 1960's and the tracks were torn up in 1972.

The rails were left on the dike bordering the Bay to help hold it together.

Alexander Leslie at Erieau

I remember going to the dike in my early years of birding, as it was always a hotspot especially in May. There used to be more trees there which would attract birds. It is still a fairly good spot to go and birdwatch at times. That spot just seemed to be a migrant trap, as parts in a westerly direction, were just open field.

I remember one time I stopped there in the middle of May and found hundreds of birds. There were so many birds it was unbelievable. I only went part way and turned around to get out of there since it was so overwhelming! I do recall seeing a Prairie Warbler that day.

It is a good spot in late fall to get some decent birds and rails (no pun intended). Last fall we had the Northern Waterthrush in December, along with Common Yellowthroats and others. The Tropical Kingbird was along here, but farther up the trail, in October/November 2002.

I check it regularly when I can!